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04 May 2011

T for The Tudors

This post is brought to you by the letter T.

Today I actually have a somewhat topical subject. There was a royal wedding recently in England, and this is about a British king who had six royal weddings! (William: do not emulate.) I've been watching The Tudors. I'm kind of embarrassed about this.

This picture hints at why it's mildly embarrassing to admit that I like it. (I picked a safe picture.) The characters cannot keep their clothes on, or generally stay monogamous. But hey -- what do you expect with an historic television drama series starring Henry VIII? The man had six wives and was absurdly vain about his calves. If you haven't seen it, prepare to be shocked by the promiscuity in the first episode, even if you know it's coming.

I'm on episode 13, and I can tell that Anne is about to get the kibosh. (It doesn't count as spoilers when it's history. If you don't known that Henry the 8th's second wife gets her head chopped off, what do you know about British history?) Henry blows hot and cold, and he's cooling off toward Anne, who doesn't have any friends--probably because everyone blames her for Henry breaking off with Rome.

I've never been interested in Henry the 8th because I have always been much more interested in Elizabeth. (Let's be honest -- she kicks butt.) But now I am seeing that this part of history is actually very interesting. The rise of Luther's ideas and the whole broiling argument about religion and state is completely fascinating. For some reason, I had thought America's concept of separation of church and state was a new thing, but obviously we just took what England started to its natural conclusion. Thanks, Henry the 8th!

The religious arguments about the power of the Papacy are somehow significantly more interesting when they're being argued by people who might take their clothes off at any moment! I see what they did there. Those tricksy writers. Tricksy little hobitses. Tricking people into learning about the reformation and the history of England.

Other Stuff

A comic by Kate Beaton, artist of Hark, a vagrant. I saw this comic a while ago, and it's basically the only reason I turned The Tudors on when I saw it on Netflix.

The song Henry the Eighth:

I heard this song once when I was younger, and now it always pops into my head